Longtime Sweet Home High School football coach Rob Younger was awarded a Citation from the National Federation of State High School Associations Coaches Association during last week’s Summer Meeting of the NFHS in Orlando, Fla.
The NFHS, an organization that has provided oversight for high school athletics and performing arts since its founding in 1920, is composed of 50 state high school associations plus the District of Columbia.
NFHS Citations are awarded to individuals whose contributions have impacted high school activity programs through their association with one of the following groups of professionals: state associations and NFHS staff, athletic directors, coaches, officials, music adjudicators and directors, and speech, debate and theatre directors.
The citation was one of 20 presented at an awards luncheon on Wednesday, June 30, in Orlando.
Younger first started coaching at Crescent Valley High School in Corvallis while completing his degree at Oregon State University.
He has lived in Sweet Home since 1980, when he became an assistant coach and taught biology at Sweet Home High School. He was also an administrator in the school district for numerous years, and was Sweet Home’s head football coach for 22 years.
Younger won seven Capital Conference Football Coach of the Year awards, and twice earned the same honor as Sweet Home’s softball coach. He won the 2007 Power of Influence Award from the American Football Coaches Association, and won the award again in 2018. In 2009, the Oregon Officials Association named him Coach of the Year.
Younger was defensive coordinator in 1987 when the Huskies won the state championship on the gridiron, and he became head coach the next year.
He also coached softball for 15 years and was Sweet Home’s head basketball coach in the 1980s.
For the past seven years Younger has served as executive director of the Oregon Athletic Coaches Association for the past seven years. He was part of the Oregon School Activities Association Executive Board from 2005 to 2011 and was instrumental in the establishment of the OSAA’s annual Coaches Symposium.
He served two terms as president of the Mid-Valley Baseball Umpires Association over his 44 years of membership.
Younger’s coaching leadership ascended to the national level in 2000 when he was appointed Section 8 representative on the National Federation Coaches Association Advisory Committee, where he served until 2012. In 2010, Younger became affiliated with the National Organization of Coaches Association Directors and is now entering his sixth year on the organization’s Board of Directors, which has included one year as Board president in 2018.
Most recently, he was named the first president of the newly formed National High School Football Coaches Alliance in 2017.
“As I’ve gotten older, I’ve had the opportunity to be recognized. And it’s great to be recognized and all, but I’ll be honest with you, all of the congratulatory notes, the ex-players and peers reaching out – that means a heck of a lot more than the actual award,” Younger said.
“The bottom line is, coaching is a people business. I’ve been in it a long time, and after 46 years, you make some great relationships with friends and players,” he said. “That’s what I’ll remember.”